‘Don’t go there, Clare! I thought we’d talked about this. Crabby’s one of the good guys. And I like the dude as much as you do. But there’s not a scrap of evidence that Beth’s death was anything other than exactly what it looks like – a suicide.’

Clare made no reply. And Jo watched as she sat silently twirling the stem of her wine glass between her fingers, and staring fixedly into what remained of its contents.

Jo said, ‘OK, Clare, I know you. There’s something you’re not telling me. What gives?’

Clare let out a long slow breath. ‘OK. But if I tell you, you’ve got to promise you won’t get angry with me. I did something really stupid, when I went to see Mark Stone. Something that could’ve landed Crabby in hot water with the police.’

‘Hey, none of us like to have our ideas dismissed. But how much harm can it have done telling Stone about what Crabby said about Beth?’

Clare shook her head, but still didn’t look up. ‘It’s not that.’

‘What then?’

‘Promise me you won’t get angry?’

Jo raised her hands in mock surrender. ‘I promise. Now just tell me what happened.’

‘I told him about what Margaret and I found out when we went to meet that antiquities dealer.’

In a stage whisper, Jo said, ‘You did what? What the hell were you thinking of, Clare?’ She leant in towards Clare and lowered her voice. ‘You know Crabby planted those finds.’

Clare looked up at her friend, ‘Yes, of course. And to be honest I don’t know why I said it. I was just so pissed off with Mark. I suppose I wanted him to take me seriously for once.’

‘So you figured it was worth risking getting Crabby caught up in a police investigation because you thought some guy wasn’t paying you enough attention. Is that what you’re telling me?’

‘It wasn’t like that. You weren’t there, Jo. He was so patronising. I was sick to death of the way he always dismisses everything I say out of hand. I wanted to show him I wasn’t just some silly little woman who could be ignored. I thought if I could face him down with the evidence, I could show him he’d been wrong to just disregard what happened with the nighthawks. Then he’d have to sit up and take notice. And I didn’t want the dealer to just get away with it. Who knows what other sites he and his mates are out there wrecking right now.’

Jo leant back in her chair and folded her arms. ‘I see – you did all of this for entirely ethical reasons. Is that the story?’